A Word About Email Reputation Certification and Accreditation

Before diving into our FAQ, here is a quick overview of how email reputation accreditation and certification works. The way that it works is that we certify the IP addresses of our certified email senders. When an email receiver (such as an ISP, a spam filter, or another such email receiver) receives your email, they look up the IP address you are using to send that email in a variety of databases called ‘DNS zones’. You may be familiar with the concept of a spam blacklist – which is also a DNS zone. Our SuretyMail DNS zone can be thought of as the opposite of a blacklist. If your IP address is listed on a blacklist, then the email receiver is likely to reject your email, instead of delivering it to the recipient. When an email receiver finds your IP address in our SuretyMail zones, it means that we are certifying the reputation of your email, and that they should deliver it to the person to whom you are sending it. (The second map on our maps page shows all of the ISPs, spam filters, and other email receiving systems around the world checking our zones in real time.)

Now you may be thinking that means that the SuretyMail zones are whitelists. The difference is that a whitelist says to ISPs and spam filters only “you should accept this email because we say so”. Our system not only tells the ISPs and spam filters that they should accept and deliver your email, but why they should accept and deliver it. This is one of the reasons that the email receivers trust us so much. Our system provides real-time data about your email practices to each and every ISP and spam filter every single time they look for you in our zones (we were, by the way, the first to develop and pioneer this system, which has since been copied by other services).

And now, on to our FAQ!

1. SuretyMail or ReturnPath – Which One Should We Use?

It can be a little overwhelming and confusing trying to figure out which email accreditation or reputation service you should use. In some ways, the services are similar; in fact ISIPP’s CEO and one of the architects of our SuretyMail service was an original founder of Habeas, which has since been acquired by ReturnPath.

However there are some important differences. For example, ISIPP doesn’t require you to go through an audit, to sign a multi-paged contract, or to make a time commitment – something that the other services do (we also offer a money-back guarantee, something that the other services don’t do).

We’re also a lot less expensive. In fact, we are so much less expensive that sometimes people are confused by the difference!

The reason that we can charge so much less for a comparable (we would say superior!) service is that we only do one thing, and we do it very well. We help get your email delivered.

Other differences between the services include:

Our fees are based on your business model, not on the volume of email that you send. This means that whether you are a giant email service provider, or a mom and pop newsletter, we have a rate that you will be able to afford. And you won’t be penalized as your email volume grows along with your business.

ISIPP is a privately held organization, meaning that our SuretyMail accreditation program has no venture funding or other outside monetary interests driving it. This means that the administration of the SuretyMail program is completely free of outside financial influences. This is important for you because it means that ISPs and spam filters know that each sender accredited through us is there entirely on their own merit, and so they trust us, and they trust our senders. As a result, by their own account, our email senders enjoy some of the highest deliverability rates in the industry.

Because of our unique reporting system, we can provide these high deliverability rates without requiring that you use a confirmed (double) opt-in system in order to participate in our accreditation service. What matters is how clean and spam-free your system is, not how many hoops you’ll jump through. This means that solid, legitimate legacy lists can still qualify for SuretyMail accreditation, even if they were not built using double-opt in.

And because we take our role to facilitate the delivery of wanted email seriously, and because of our affordable pricing, we are the only service which openly welcomes and works with newsletters, smaller publishing houses, individual publishers and mailing lists.

We are flexible while never compromising our standards, and are willing to work with both senders and receivers with special requests. When one of the largest email senders in the United States needed a version of an accreditation list which served up domains, complete with sub-domains, rather than IP addresses, we had one up and running for them within the week. And that service is now included at no extra charge to all of our SuretyMail accredited senders.

Our optional triple-check system serves to prove that the email you send really comes from you, which is an important fringe benefit in these times of phishing and domain spoofing.

There is no time commitment, and we offer a money-back guarantee! SuretyMail participation is month-to-month, and the cost is so reasonable that it costs less to give it a try for a month than it costs to even just apply elsewhere. Try getting that kind of flexibility from the other services!

All that said, we are on very good terms with our colleagues at ReturnPath, and we have had a few customers who have chosen to use both services at the same time; this is possible because our costs are so reasonable.

It takes less than five minutes to fill out our online application, and another ten minutes to provide us with the follow up information once approved. In the vast majority of cases, once you are approved your listing will happen within 30 minutes, with nothing to do on your end but sit back and enjoy immediately improved email deliverability.

2. What if We’re in the EU or Elsewhere?

SuretyMail Email Accreditation and Certification will work for you wherever you are! We help email senders in countries around the world get their email delivered, including in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States! Take a peek at our interactive maps that show our customers sending email around the world in real-time!

3. What is the difference between accreditation and certification?

For our purposes, the terms ‘accreditation’ and ‘certification’ are interchangeable, and in fact we use them interchangeably on our site. When we accredit – or ‘certify’ – your email, we are certifying to the ISPs and spam filters that you are following email best practices, and that they should deliver your email to their users’ inbox, and not the spam folder.

4. What’s it Cost?

The monthly fee ranges from $150.00 per month to $400.00 per month, all inclusive. The only other cost to you is the application fee, which is $500.00. That’s it. There are no hidden costs or fees associated with being accredited with SuretyMail. For more pricing information, check out our pricing schedule.

How Come You Don’t Charge More?
We know that the other guys charge as much as ten times what we do, or more. But here at SuretyMail we do just one thing, and we do it really well: we get your email delivered. We’ve priced our offerings so that it makes sense to outsource your email deliverability to us, rather than hiring someone to do it in-house, or spending so much more on the other guys. WIth the money you save, throw your employees a party! (Back to Top)

5. What’s My Financial Obligation?

There is no financial or time obligation. Participation in our SuretyMail Email Senders Accreditation Program is month-to-month, and there is no time commitment or obligation. This allows you to try our service with no risk, and, in fact, with our money-back guarantee. (Back to Top)

6. What is Your Money-Back Guarantee?

If at any time you decide that you are not satisfied with the results you get from being certified with our SuretyMail Email Senders Accreditation Program, just let us know and we’ll refund the full fee for that month! (Back to Top)

7. What’s Involved in Setting it Up?

There is nothing you need to do to set up your accreditation other than apply, and sit back and enjoy enhanced deliverability. You don’t need to do anything on your end. Your email does not have to be routed through us – in fact we don’t touch your email at all. And you don’t have to make any changes to your mailing programs or server. There are optional things you may want to do, but nothing that you have to do. (Back to Top)

8. Don’t You Have to Audit My Email or Something?

No, we don’t have to audit your email (let’s face it, your practices and/or volume could change the very next week). What we care about is what you tell us on your application, and what we find when we are processing your application.

9. If You Don’t Touch My Email, How Does it Work?

ISPs, spam filters, and corporate mail servers check our database of SuretyMail accredited senders in real-time. Here is how it works: the ISP’s incoming email server notes the IP address of a sending email server (that’s your email server!) which is connecting to it, and checks it at that very moment against the IP addresses listed in our database (DNS zone). The presence of your IP address in our database of SuretyMail accredited senders tells that ISP, spam filter or other mail server “Hey, these are good senders.”

Now, this is pretty much how all of the services – blocklist, blacklist, accreditation, and reputation – all work. The difference is that when the ISP, spam filter or other mail server checks our SuretyMail database, we don’t just tell them “hey, these are good senders”! We also tell them “and here is what makes them good senders!” They not only get the information that you are certified by SuretyMail, but they also find out – on the spot – everything you are doing right (such as your opt-in policies, whether you publish rDNS, whether you publish SPF, etc.).

All of this is done without your having to lift a finger! All you have to do is apply! (Back to Top)

10. What if I’m an Agency Applying on Behalf of a Client?

If you are an agent or other third-party wanting to apply on behalf of a client, please have your client contact us directly. While we do need to work directly with the party who will actually be accredited, your client can designate you as a contact so that you will be kept in the loop every step of the way. (Back to Top)

It takes less than five minutes to fill out our online application, and another ten minutes to provide us with the follow up information. In the vast majority of cases, once you are approved your listing will happen within 30 minutes, with nothing to do on your end but sit back and enjoy immediately improved email deliverability. (Back to Top)